Strong predictor of health for girls in Minnesota is laid in family’s economic situation. Girls more likely than boys to grow into poverty. Female-headed families make up the largest share of poor families (71% of poor African American families are headed by a woman).

Tells a story of two Minnesota. “Girls of color in Minnesota are more likely to be poor than girls of color as a whole.”

While most Minnesota girls see school as a safe place, responses from students of color paint a different picture. American Indian girls — 1 of 5 — are more likely to report sexual abuse. Girls are engaged in negative behavior to complicate the problems. Girls are more likely to do drugs. American Indian girls are more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol to escape their feelings. “It’s three times as bad, and 70-percent of sexual violence isn’t reported, so we don’t even know how bad it is.”

“No one seems to be paying attention to this disproportionate share of the problem.”

11:17Sandra Vargas, pres of The Minneapolis Foundation:

Girls in Minnesota are substantially less prepared for college than boys.

(ed note: will up some graphics later)

Girls are being trained to start family role at an early age, limiting their opportunities. In the Latino community “we have the highest number of dropouts. If they get to high school, the kids aren’t finding the welcoming kind of environment, where their academic achievements are supported.”

Girls of color don’t get supportive messages from the system. “It is a problem that we are counting on these young girls to positively affect our economic quality of life and yet we have not done much of anything to change the kind of attitudes and interface that these young girls have with institutions they face every day. After awhile, when you get the message that you don’t matter, you begin to think that of yourself.”

She says the problem is acute among people here illegally. “When your parents are trying to be invisible and they’re telling you to be invisible, we’re all in trouble.”

Q&A

Q: Surprised or does this affirm existing understanding?

A: We had some “ah ha’s”. Shocking to learn ACT disparities even though they’re working harder in school (than boys). Disparity in girls of color among every facet of the research tells us we need to do something.

Walker: I blame the press and policy makers. We’ve known this for years.

Vargas: “We don’t have the political will to do intervention and prevention. We have the political will to build more prisons.”

(Observation: The hearing room at the Capitol is full. The only men here appear to be reporters/photographers)

Q: We are neglecting the core problem which is male. (I don’t think this is a reporter asking the question). I don’t see any men here. How are you involving them.

A: The Women’s Foundation has been around for 25 years. Like a lot of different movements, you kind of start with an empowerment basis and model. These are the type of strategic questions our board is looking at because we know if we want to make cultural change, we have to involve men.

Walker: “Our kids are going through something vastly different than what we went through. If you’re a white , 60 year old man, it’s very difficult for you to understand what a 10-year-old Latino girl is going through.”

Q: This battle has been going on for years. Why is this not happening? I assume you agree there has to be a fundamental change in attitude to eliminate these disparities. How can you get at changing these basic attitudes and has there been any progress?

A: Walker: We have 70 of 201 legislators who are women. One of the difficulties is the Legislature does not move quickly. Things take time. Even though we know what the statistics say, we wouldn’t get it all. Sometimes it takes a couple of years. Out of 134 reps, 56 individuals have less seniority than me. That’s an opportunity for Minnesota to talk to their legislators. That change is coming.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was vice president of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Company. Previously, he was an editor at the RKO Radio network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website.

There are more women students enrolled than men. Enrollments of women students have increased each year since 1982, when they were equal to men enrollments. In fall 2006, 59 percent of enrolled students (224,457) were women. At the undergraduate level, there are more women than men enrolled across all race/ethnicity backgrounds. More information on enrollments by gender.

Bob Collins

Page 41.

Jamie

…and yet we have not done much of anything to change the kind of attitudes and interface that these young girls have with institutions they face every day…

That’s one of the more perspicacious comments above. Whether prevailing attitudes affect girls and women of color, or those who are economically challenged or not, we have not come nearly as far as some of us would like to believe. Witness the egregiously misogynist treatment of our 1st — finally — woman presidential candidate, and look around at the highly sexualized way that girls and (mostly younger) women dress, apparently feeling they have to spend enormous energy and self-respect on attracting boys. Many girls and women will continue to be kept down as long as those attitudes prevail.

P.S. What does “live blogging” mean, and where did all those comments above come from? Was someone taking notes at a discussion or somehting?

GregS

Page 41?

(Collins: Page 41 of the study — the link is in the main post — is what their assertion is based on and the data they have.)

c

Jamie-

I think that Bob sits in on the interview on Mpr News (91.1) and ‘live blogs’ as the interview is going on. The comments above are the folks being interviewed.

I agree with your observation on young woman and their beliefs that one needs to compete by sexualizing their appearance. I blame commercialism. But that is beside the point. What I belivieve that needs to be done is teach these young girls that beauty comes from within and this is where they might want to focus. I see this attitude in women of all ages actually. Young women seem to go for the higher skirts while the ‘old gals’ go for botox. (Whatever happened to Grandma actually looking like a Grandma?)

Then this generation of the ‘Genuinely Haughty and Snotty Sisters’ will cease to prevail.

Bob Collins

In this case it was a news conference to release the report. Live blogging means that I’m posting in real time. These days, it’s the fastest way to get information on breaking news or live events.

GregS

Thanks Bob,

It looks to me like they are desperatly looking for a glass less than full. I notice girls outperform boys in two area (English and Reading) while boys outperform girls in two areas (Math and Science).

As for SAT scores, it looks to me that the scores are even. Girls outperform boys in Writing, tie the boys in Writing, and come close in Math.

(Side Note: The graphic the authors use to illustrate the differences is a classic case of visual bias. Have they not heard of the concept of scale?)

It is bizarre to make outragious statements about how ill prepared girls are for college, when girls attend AND GRADUATE from college at a significantly higher rate than boys.

No wonder the guys didn’t show up for the press conference, what guy who was not being paid to attend, would be there?

GregS

I agree with your observation on young woman and their beliefs that one needs to compete by sexualizing their appearance. I blame commercialism. But that is beside the point. What I belivieve that needs to be done is teach these young girls that beauty comes from within and this is where they might want to focus.